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£7.49

Free postage

Get it by Mon, 26 Nov - Tue, 27 Nov from Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

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£3.40 New

£2.45 Used

2015

J.J. Abrams

Harrison Ford

About this product

Description

A delightful Ealing comedy set in the war-ravaged English capital. When an old document, found on a bombsite, reveals that the London district of Pimlico is in actual fact a part of the French duchy of Burgundy, the residents declare independence from Britain. They even set up customs' checkpoints for passengers travelling through Pimlico station on the London Underground. Initially, they're delighted at the turn of events, which means they dispense with wartime rationing and free from other British government control. But when they get hit by food and water shortages of their own, Britain starts looking rosier by the minute.

The Ealing Studios' 1949 production "Passport to Pimlico" is usually considered to be, not only one of its best films generally, but one of the best 'comedies' to come from that studio.
This delightfully funny film concerns the plight of a small group of Londoners who, due to circumstances beyond their control, find that they are, in fact, not Londoners at all but natives of Burgundy. At first they believe this to be a good thing as it frees them from the post-war trammels of government interference such as ration books. It also means that there are no such things as licencing laws - which means that the pubs can stay open whenever they want to. The downside of this situation is that Pimlico now becomes a restriction-free zone, open to spivs and black market traders, making the area noisy and dangerous.
While the government shilly-shallys about exactly what to do the 'Burgundians' take matters into their own hands. They set up customs controls and require underground trains to stop at the 'Burgundy' frontier for inspection.
Finally the area returns to British governmental control, but not until after the independently minded inhabitants have stated that: "We always were English and we always will be English, and it's just because we are English that we're sticking up for our right to be Burgundian!.
Directed by Henry Cornelius ("Genevieve" 1953) and scripted by TEB (Tibby) Clarke, an Ealing regular, "Passport to Pimlico" remains to this day a film that enables its audience to act out the fantasy of escaping from the daily grind, ultimately however, to realise that perhaps the daily grind is what gives us our security and livelihood, no matter how dull and boring we find it.
The film stars such stalwarts of the British film as Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Raymond Huntley, Sydney Tafler, John Slater, Charles Hawtrey and the wonderful Margaret Rutherford.
This writer was born in London the same year that "Passport to Pimlico" was released and it takes him back to his London childhood and reminds him of what it means to be 'English'. He was always an escapist and it's just because he was an escapist that he is sticking up for his right to BE an escapist.Read full review

one of the best British films ever made it shows the devastation of the worlds greatest city and the comedy of the British people it made me laugh a perfect film to watch on a cold windy sunday after a fantastic sunday lunch i recomend this film to any one who like me loves British film it will lift your mood and show we are the greatest nation ever

This is a great film. It gives such a good picture of life in England in the late 1940s - it's like watching a film set in another country. Watch it if you want to know about what people were like then, but don't fancy a factual historical documentary.
Oh - and it's funny too!